Review of the Greening Reaction by Thermal Treatment: New Insights Exploring the Structural Implications of Myoglobin

Andrés Álvarez-Armenta, Jose A. Huerta-Ocampo, Alonso A. López-Zavala, Ramón Pacheco-Aguilar, Rogerio R. Sotelo-Mundo, David O. Corona-Martínez, Juan Carlos Ramírez-Suárez*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Myoglobin is the main factor responsible for muscle pigmentation in tuna; muscle color depends upon changes in the oxidative state of myoglobin. The tuna industry has reported muscle greening after thermal treatment involving metmyoglobin (MetMb), trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), and free cysteine (Cys). It has been proposed that this pigmentation change is due to a disulfide bond between a unique cysteine residue (Cys10) found in tuna MetMb and free Cys. However, no evidence has been given to confirm that this reaction occurs. In this review, new findings about the mechanism of this greening reaction are discussed, showing evidence of how free radicals produced from Cys oxidation under thermal treatment participate in the greening of tuna and horse muscle during thermal treatment. In addition, the reaction conditions are compared to other green myoglobins, such as sulfmyoglobin, verdomyoglobin, and cholemyoglobin.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)17485-17493
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Volume71
Issue number46
DOIs
StatePublished - 22 Nov 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 American Chemical Society.

Keywords

  • free cysteine
  • greening
  • thermic treatment
  • trimethylamine oxide
  • tuna myoglobin

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